NAMIBIA’s leading pharmaceutical company, Fabupharm has announced that it has expanded its business with a new range of products expected on the market soon.
According to the company’s sales director Carl Brinkmann, the new products expected on the market soon include supplementary as well as skin and health care products such as Suplimax Charcoal Capsules, Suplimax Joint Pain Relief, Suplimax Fibrelle Capsules as well as the Fabupharm Plus cream range.
“We have also, planned launching a new brand of baby products called Ideal For Baby such as Ideal Baby Bottom Baby Balm designed specifically for babies,” he said.z
The company, established in 1989, prides itself on being a wholly-Namibian company and says it plans creating more jobs. “Current investments increased jobs from 35 to 65% with additional investments estimated by 35% growth in jobs. The current investments have enabled the launch of our new product range and we expect a further expansion of products with additional investments,” Brinkmann said.
Brinkmann said the company also plans to invest in the expansion of staff changeover rooms with lockers and toilet facilities that are expected to be completed by August. He also explained that the company has plans for investing in a heat, ventilation and air handling system, air handling extension, bottling plant, filling and capping,conveyers installation, water purifying plant and a steel container.
Fabupharm’s managing director Fanie Badenhorst said that the company currently has a range of other new products that are also expected to come on the market soon such as oral rehydration salts and diabetic care products. He said the company has shown a 57% growth in its previous financial year.
“We have also spent N$3,4 million in the 2013 fiscal year to comply with the Good Manufacturing Practice requirements,” he said.
According to Badenhorst, the company has also recently invested in clean room technology, internal and external production division, air handling system for air pressure and cooling, sachet filling machine and blending machine and capsule polisher.
“Opportunities exist to export our products to surrounding African countries and to growing the market locally. We are also adding value to Namibia by procuring materials locally such as Devil’s Claw, Hoodia and Mancetti Oil. Our decision to expand is based on the fact that health care is a growing market,” he said
He noted, however, that exporting to South Africa is, unfortunately, impossible due to the ban on the export of medicinal products from Namibia to South Africa. “We are in talks with the relevant stakeholders about lifting this ban, but it remains one of our key challenges,” says Brinkmann.
The company currently supplies leading retailers such as Shoprite, Checkers, Pick ‘n Pay, Woermann & Brock, Spar, OK Foods and Metro.
“However, there are still some foreign retailers that do not purchase Fabupharm products such as Clicks, JetMart, Edgars, Ackerman’s, which is unfortunate” said Badenhorst.
He said Fabupharm is currently the only Namibian manufacturing facility to produce medicinal products under license from the Namibian Medicines Regulatory Council.
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